Monday, April 21, 2014

For my Social Justice event I attended the Iggy's Doughboy Dash. You may be wondering how this could have anything to do with FNED but surprisingly it does. On April 13th was when Iggy's hosted there second annual doughboy dash funding children with disabilities.This event is honored for children who struggle with disabilities. This one particular family hosts this event for any outsiders to come and uses the money raised to find a cure for all different disabilities.

This event is made to have fun but also come together for the support of the children and parents. One of the main parts of this event is to run a half a mile and then eat a half a dozen doughboys and then run back to the starting point. After everybody is done running, their is clam cakes and chowder to eat. Also, parents speak on behalf of the experiences they have with their children and even some children speak too. After attending this event I realized the hardships the parents have being a parent whose child has a disability. The point of this event is to be fun for all children who come that have disabilities and to show love and support for these children. Parents of children with disabilities speak on behalf of the lifestyle that they have to live.Sitting and listening to what these parents had to say really amazed me. It brought me back to when we watched that video in class of all of the parents who go through hell to get their children the right education or whatever it may be that their child needs.

It also connected me to the previous reading of Kliewer. After hearing stories of parents of what they have to go through daily, whether it is school related or an after school program related their is no short-cuts and it is always a process with something. I really give it out to those parents because they have to work extra hard for their children and for their family as well. Some of the parents just like in the video that we watched had to leave their jobs just so they can take on the full time job of taking care of their child.I had a really great experience attending this event and I would definitely go again to meet more people and hear more stories!

Sunday, April 20, 2014

For this weeks blog post and last blog post on the readings, I decided to pull out some quotes that I thought were interesting to me. Sometimes I find it easier to use quotes from the text to explain the connections that I have with them.

"Students in empowering classes should be expected to develop skills and knowledge as well as high expectations for themselves, their education, and their futures." (16)

Shor claims that allowing students to have a voice in the classroom changes everything which I believe is true. Setting the class setting early is very important considering that one day, students feel that they are a valued part of the classroom, which will hopefully improve their outlook on school. I also think that in empowering classes, students help one another develop a sense of self-worth. If you were an educator and had a chance to do this for your students, wouldn't you?

"They ask why the official textbook and syllabus are organized the way they are and how this knowledge relates to their community cultures and to conditions in society." (37)

This quote was very interesting to me. When I first read this quote I thought--Dr. Bogad. This particular quote reminded me of the day that we had a "written assignment". She is teaching our class as an example of what Shor claimed to say. Of course, being a student for so long, I am so used to doing what I am told by teachers that when and assignment like what Dr. Bogad handed to us, I just did, without any hesitation. I think that this is very important to remember as we become teachers because if this is how I feel now or did feel back in high school, am I going to want to make my students feel the same way? Absolutely not. We should care about our students' opinion.

Those were two of the quotes that I found really interesting and connected well with. I sort of found this reading a little difficult to understand but when I could relate it to our class itself and the readings, I had a better understanding of it!

Monday, April 7, 2014

For this Weeks reading we had to read Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome. This reading out of all the many readings that we have had to read so far this semester, has had to of been my least favorite. I was not engaged in this text at all whatsoever. I tried my best to read it but then I realized the reason I didn't like the reading was because I wasn't interested in it at all. I believe that because I had no personal connection with the article, it was hard to see where the author was coming from with all of the different points that he was trying to make. I presumed that was the reason why this was one of my least favorite readings.

Although I didn't like this reading I managed to find some interesting points that Kliewer mentions on the very first page of the article, that I agreed with. Kinglsey claims that we need to break the barrier for people with disabilities which I believe is true. In order to break the barrier of people with disabilities, other people need to not be so judgmental and stereotypical of people that have disabilities. I believe in order for this work these two groups of people need to come together and by doing that students and students with disabilities should come together in a school setting. Just because a student has a disability doesn't make them any different from a non-disability student besides the fact, of course, that they have a disability. Just like we talked about last week with grouping students who have a higher I.Q with the better teachers and the students who aren't that smart or need more help, are placed with teachers that don't care. These teachers believe that there students are "stupid" and because of that judgment, the students placed in a lower class setting are loosing out on their education. I feel the same way with students that have a disability. Students that have a disability are typically placed in the same section of the building but teachers and aids must also remember that not every student has the same disability, therefore some students are capable of doing a lot more and shouldn't be labeled to be placed into those types of classrooms. These students should have reign but also some guidance in pointing them into the right direction.A student that has a disability usually has no control over this happening to he or she, so why punish them even more to being limited to doing certain activities and learning certain things? It's not. I can remember back in high school, there was one part of our school which was called the 300's and that was were all the special education classes were, people with disabilities. After being in my Senior year in high school, I remember this one girl who I never even knew had some type of disability because she dressed and acted so normally but because she was in those classrooms and walked with the students with disabilities I knew she was. She tried so hard to fit in and be one of the popular girls that it broke my heart to have to see her be limited to meeting certain people in high school because of whatever type of disability that she had.